Jesus the Jew

My wife is Jewish. John’s Gospel is particularly difficult for me to listen to, even when I know that the phrase in today’s Gospel, “[T]he Jews were trying to kill him” (Jn 7:1), refers to the Jewish authorities and not to all Jews. After all, Jesus, His Apostles, and His own mother were Jews.

Although He didn’t want to go up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles, a weeklong fall harvest festival, He finally decided to follow His relatives and “he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret” (Jn 7:2). He hadn’t wanted to go because His time, the spring harvest festival of Passover, had not yet come. But He was too Jewish to miss intentionally one of the more important religious holidays.

Enjoy this article? With a paid PRINT subscription you will help us continue to bring reliable news, information, and Church teaching to Catholics nationwide. Won’t you join us on our mission? Subscribe today.